The grand slam: Don’t dream, it’s over

There is freedom within, there is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup

Coming on the same weekend that legendary Australian band Crowded House reunited for a series of sold out concerts on the steps of the Sydney Opera House – 20 years on from their original break-up concert at the same venue – it was ‘only natural’ that the lyrics to Don’t Dream it’s Over would arrive front of mind as the Wallabies dropped their first game of the Spring Tour.

The 27-24 loss to Ireland also means I can now use the words, ‘Grand Slam’ in a sentence this month; something I’ve very deliberately avoided up until this point.

Though the early wins on tour certainly meant the Grand Slam was possible, this kind of reporting after the Wales and Scotland results made me cringe. To me, this highlighted a tendency to clutch at any kind of possible success for the Wallabies in 2016, when in all reality, the Grand Slam was still a long way off.

When you go through a rough trot like the Wallabies have this year, I suppose you will grab onto whatever you can.

In truth, the Grand Slam could only ever have been lost against Wales and Scotland, not won. And though it could only ever be completed against England next weekend, I had always thought that the Ireland game would be where the Grand Slam would be truly won.

But the dream is now over for this tour, with Ireland pulling out an incredible last-ditch effort to confirm the result their dominant first half display demanded.

In the closing moments, the point was made that Ireland have now beaten the three southern hemisphere superpowers, and this certainly can’t be understated. Beating South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia in the same season is every bit as difficult as beating all four of the Home Unions, and Ireland deserve all the praise coming their way currently.

Overcoming the injury toll they endured in-game as they did, and to maintain scrum dominance throughout the game and breakdown parity at the very least showed the huge character this Irish side has within them.

In that first half, it really did feel like the Wallabies were trying to catch the Irish attacking deluge in a paper cup. Try as they might to get their hands on the ball in the first forty, the Wallabies always managed to find themselves on the wrong side of the laws, or rueing yet another handling error.

And though Ireland enjoyed a clear territory and possession advantage in the first half, the Wallabies’ defence forced plenty of mistakes. Indeed, when Paddy Jackson kicked his first penalty goal to open the scoring in the 17th minute, Ireland had already squandered at least three attempted lineout raids on the Australian try line.

On the half hour, a stat graphic popped up on screen that showed the extent of both Ireland dominance with the ball, and the effectiveness of the Wallabies’ defence.

Ireland to that point had carried the ball three times as much as the Wallabies (65 to 22 carries), yet hadn’t made double the metres (195m to 100m). And whereas the Wallabies were making the gain line with nearly every second carry, for Ireland it was every two and a half carries. Ireland had won five turnovers to the Wallabies’ three to this same point.

Yet the score was only 10-0. Both teams would score a converted try each in the last six or so minutes of the first half, but the Wallabies would’ve been thrilled to be only trailing by ten points, given the sheer one-sidedness of the possession and territory stats in the first half.

From memory, the Wallabies didn’t win another turnover for the game; no doubt this would become a contributing factor as they battled to put Ireland away properly once they brought the territory and possession back to something of an even keel through the second half.

So, while the result will sting the Wallabies this week leading into the England game – and worse, now the Eddie Jones barbs have started – they should take a lot of confidence out of the loss to an incredibly resilient Irish side.

The Wallabies saw their chance to attack the depleted and makeshift Ireland defence on the edges and found immediate success. Had their execution matched their eagerness in the first twenty minutes of the second half, they could well have been leading by more than just the one point they’d managed to claw ahead by the hour.

After seeing so little ball in the first half, by the 60th minute the Wallabies had enjoyed 74 per cent of the ball after oranges, and scored 14 points to 3.

Michael Cheika was right to be pleased with the amount of rugby his side played in the game with so little ball, and if not for conceding nearly twice as many turnovers as Ireland, they had plenty of opportunity to win the game.

“Don’t dream, it’s over” certainly applies to the 2016 Grand Slam, but if you remove the comma, “don’t dream it’s over” equally applies to the direction this Wallabies team is heading. Yes, there’s still plenty to improve in their game, but there is clearly plenty that has already improved in this back half of the year.

The loss in Dublin means a squared ledger for the year is no longer possible, but a win over England would be a nice finish to a 2016 season that has seen some encouraging development.

Brett McKay

Brett McKay is one of The Roar's good news stories and has been a rugby and cricket expert for the site since July 2009. Brett is an international and Super Rugby commentator for ABC Grandstand radio, has commentated on the Australian Under-20s Championships and National Rugby Championship live stream coverage, and has written for magazines and websites in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. He tweets from @BMcSport.

Why snide? I’m a Wallaby supporter and would love to see my team win the Grand Slam (when was our last time?). I’m simply stating that at the moment the ABs are the only team capable of achieving such feat.

There is nothing more amusing than a kiwi living in australia that’s as australian as anyone until it comes to the all blacks..

if your gonna live here all your life.. you may as well support the national team of the country you live in.

Then again maybe kiwissies whom have lived here all their lives and owe all their success to australia are suddenly kiwis once they’ve become successful but yet have no intention of going ‘home’.. that gets my goat..

I’ve put up with my two best mates rubbing the all blacks and crusaders in my face.. Yet other than that there’s nothing kiwi about them..

Disagree – never forget who you are or where you come from. Doesn’t matter how long you live somewhere else, sometimes it’s the sporting teams that are the only thing you can hold dear after a long time somewhere foreign.

I am the same with Rugby. Love my wobblies even though i have spent half my live outside of Australia.

That’s a bit old school. You don’t think it’s convenient to have that view when you haven’t moved anywhere and have mates who support the ABs?

People move for all sorts of reasons, and those that do generally like to maintain as much of the good from where they are from as they can.

I wouldn’t expect an Ozzie here to support the Black caps. I’d ask them why would you want to do that? Unless they’re trying to bring up children to be supportive of their new or current position I say support who you want.

Cookie, I see what your saying but I agree with jay dos above. I’ve been away from NZ for half my life and keeping up with the AB’s helps me a lot. The only person I talk rugby to is my brother back in NZ. There are precious few here that I can do that with on the same level. Part of why I read the roar, is because There are some real insightful contributors from all over the world, which makes for some balanced reading. I’m not sure if NZ Or anywhere has an equivalent. I do support the US team as well but my heart is not in it as much. My kids prefer to support the AB’s which surprised me somewhat. But the culture here is one of fans. You can be the fan of some professional or college team and have never been to that state or seen that team play. You don’t automatically support the geographically closest team. That took a while to get my head around. Anyway if OZ can pull it off vs ENG I’ll have a VB or Bundy in their honor. I have two big jars of vegemite in my cupboard.

Yes Guys i can understand it if you actually lived in the country that you where born in for a significant period of time.. but i’m talking about guys who cam out here as 4 and 8 year olds respectively…

Whilst trying to get their australian born kids to support the all blacks over the wallabies..

Maybe i’m just old school…

What i really should have added is the question.. ‘if the all blacks where not as successful as they are would they support them or their adopted nation?’
I suspect they both support the wallabies more than they’ll ever admit and just like asking me what the score was … As for provincial teams.. well i’ve usually supported my local teams that i’ve played for then the area / state… These days i don’t really care who’s playing or wins.. i just want to watch rugby wherever it’s played.. and by god compared to afl nrl.. we are blessed with quality comps all year round.. only soccer rivals the quantity/qualiity of games on offer at all levels

I’m Aussie. Born & bred in Oz for 32 years. I now live in London and will do so for a while longer. I even have a British Passport. I’ll never ever support the Poms (unless they are playing the stinking Saffas). I would never dream of turning my back on the Wallabies even if I never went home again.
Then again, both my parents were born in England, got married in Canada & settled in Oz & they only support Aussie teams so I guess it’s how much you love where you are & how much you want to fit in or identify with the culture or locals. Kiwis in Sydney should be like Sydneysiders in their attitudes & lifestyles but they shouldn’t be forced to support the Wallabies (or worse, the Tahs!!!). Should a Queenslander who lives in Perth support the Force? You probably support an English soccer team – have you lived in West Brom or Watford?? Should we force chicks who only attend rugby games to perve on guys & don’t know the difference between a box kick & a box jellyfish to not come to games because they aren’t real supporters? No. People can do what they want & support who they want!! You should just be glad you live somewhere where you can discuss the game with opposition supporters, over here, you walk up the wrong street wearing an opposition colours (not even strip, just the colour!) & you’ll be set upon.
Ultimately we all hate the Poms & the Saffas, let’s all come together to work on that.

I lived in Bondi beach and I had people trying to claim me as Australian. I don’t know why as I didn’t embrace the culture really. No hats with corks, no light brown shorts with a light brown t-shirts. I never carried a snake and never said the word “fair dinkum”.

To escape it I went to the sea often and swam in the water in the middle of the winter. Almost like a protest. A German girl on the beach said wow you’re not afraid. I told her I was from Aotearoa. She could read my thoughts I think, and I could read hers ‘Oh they breed them a bit tougher over there eh?!’ She thought.

Anyway there was a shift from that. I remained Mr Hollywood in Bondi Beach but from Aotearoa. The stars were aligned. Hollywood was inching closer.

No no she was at the beach Dahl. We are talking about different Germans here.

The ones you heard about and bumped into at Centre Link are different. I hope you had a quiet word to them though. But then again, getting the dole and then surfing…can’t really blame them eh? Good on the Germans.

Best article I’ve read on the roar on this side for some time. Clever with the crowded house refernces and a balanced view point on the good and bad of the wallabies and the rhetoric regarding the grand slam.

One thing I would like to point out is that Cheika’s sides always turnover a lot of ball because of the nature of the way they play.

We can’t have it both ways, we can’t play expansive and play it safe at the same time.

I’d rather lose and play the way we’ve been playing than revert to dour tactcis. Viva le Wallabies… we will win much more in the years ahead as we develop the very good talent and depth we now have in most if not all positions.

You can still play expansively and commit more than one player to the ruck. I don’t mind the handling errors but I do mind that we consistently had issue with only a single player (usually Pocock) operating on ruck protection. The man is good but shouldn’t have to operate single handedly against two or three opponents.

Selection in the backrow was an issue before the game and bit us exactly as I expected it to.

JN you do realise that turnovers include drop balls etc… the Irish weren’t exactly pilfering ball all night. We lost that gaem becase too many passes didn’t go to hand and in fact with a 3nil loss frankly there was only 1 too many turnovers/drop ball.

ps we play a 2x 3man pod system + 2 opensides on the fringes. So this usually involves 2 players for the clear out, and on occasion when we go wider one of the opensides is responsible to secure ball.

We are not alone with this tactic.

JN you are jumping on abandwagon if you are putting that loss down to the backrow. We were the better side for a lot of that match and really had the referring been 50-50, and had 1 more pass stuck we’d have won. Nothing to do with the backrow

Frank – you’ve said a lot of words to not really address what I’ve said.

Do I realise that turnovers include drop balls? Why yes I do, hence why I specifically mentioned handling errors in my comment. I stated that I didn’t overly mind the handling erros because I think with Mick Byrne in place our handling will improve and because I think they will correct as playing combinations gel.

I get that we are splitting flankers – isn’t something new that we are doing – however on relatively static ball we cannot be fronting with a single player to clean out. If we are wide then a back needs to get in to support the wide flanker if the opposition are committing more numbers.

You are buying into the refereeing being against us? And want to blame that and one dropped pass on the result? You go ahead but as much enjoyment as I got out of your first article I can see we won’t agree on much.

I don’t think I’m joining a bandwagon – I had issue with selections before the game and believe they cruelled us during it.

The first forty minutes is where we lost that test and the issue there was that we couldn’t hold on to any ball. I believe the biggest factor in us not holding the ball during the period was our pack – much more so than our handling.

the reason why the Irish were the better team in the first half was because they had the lion share of possession which allowed them to dominate field position and this in turn was magnified simply because we coughed up too much ball when on the rare occasion we got it. This was further magnified by the very very one sided refereeing (and I am reluctant to criticise referees) and this meant that the irish had the lion share of possession which allowed them to dominate field position……. et cetc in a cyclical way!

had absolutely very little to do with the election of our back row.

I could count on one hand the amount of times we had only 1 player at a ruck and I don’t recall on any of these occasions that we lost the ball. Its an insignificant insight into the game because it had no bearing on the game.

btw, you can absolutely commit 1 player to a ruck if the referee polices the opposition coming through the gate, which he didn’t, he allowed the Irish in from the side as if he had never read a rule book.

Many of those that today hail “balanced” (i.e. mild) post-match loss analysis are also coincidentally those who supported the pre-game status quo.

Cheika selected the wrong team, yet again. No more so than his anaemic loose forward alignment.

For all the Irish Wolf Hounds hanging on, holding back and cleaning out David Pocock (legally and less so) all night, it’s amazing the commentators mentioned his name at all. The bloke was like a shag in a very lonely breakdown rock, and still – unbelievably – an absolute talisman. His forced turnover stats will be in single figures. And those who believe pilfers are the singular domain of an openside flanker (ahem, eightman – WTF) will call foul. But Pocock executed all the unseen, unheralded, dark-place grunt work that never gets show reel time and is the true definition of loose forward genius.

The 39th minute set piece wunderkind Wallabies try for example, will always be remembered for the wonderful midfield slight of hand that prefaced a beautiful, flowing 5 pointer. What won’t be seen (unless one rewinds 5 seconds further), is the first post-lineout breakdown at which a rampant, MoM Josh van de Flier, poised over Wallaby pill, was absolutely annihilated in a one man clean out by all 115 kegs of hard shouldered David Pocock allowing Genia unimpedied ball to spin the ball out to a fast running (try scoring) backline.

This game was won and lost in the selection (and non-selection) of the forward pack.

Really? Of the 7 past and present members of Crowded House – 2 Aussies, 2 Kiwis, 2 Americans and 1 English. Formed in Melbourne.
I know Brett was playing hahaha.
No clear majority there Shanky and Bigbaz LOL

Sorry Mango, what are you on about and who was making light of the fact the drummer from Crowded House committed suicide? The only goose is you for bringing it up and trying to make someone on this site feel terrible…now that is self absorbed and mean!

‘Drummer gags’ are entertainment-industry,standard gags; akin to ‘An Irishman and 2 others entered a bar’….or ‘piggies’ in rugby. gags Whether the drummer is alive or not is massively irrelevant to a ‘drummer gag’ and best left out of the conversation.

Yes but Crowded may have formed in Melbourne in 1985 and founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn (vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter) and Australians Paul Hester (drums) and Nick Seymour (bass) – however, it went through some transitions in the years that followed Later band members included Neil Finn’s brother, Tim Finn, and Americans Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod.

Crowded house are in fact an both a Kiwi and Australian band, or if you like an Australasian band and let’s be honest, without the New Zealander and former Split Enz singer songwriter and then the Singer Songwriter for Crowded House there is no Crowded House

He wrote pretty much all their hit songs and it is his voice that is the signature of the band so its bit rich claiming it is purely an Australian band and especially when for awhile both Finn brother were in the band. They both call Crowded House a Kiwi/Ozzy band and that is the truth of it really when one is the key song writer and singer. Kiwi’s have as much right to claim the band as Australia does quite frankly and especially when Neil Finn is the most important member of the band.

reminds me when first got a job in london and my new boss’s boss said, i will either make you happy or upset with my next comment.. i said what.. he said you are from new zealand.. he was wrong and i did not give a second thought or concern.. i asked him why he said that and he said that in all the years employing kiwis/ozzies they both detested being called incorrectly..

The loss against the Irish “may” put the Wallabies in a better frame of mind in what could be an even tougher game against Eddie’s mob.

And “if” the Wallabies are to lose one game on tour it would be better to lose against the likeable Irish than the ‘ole enemy’ of Aussie sport.

Kuridrani must feel a bit of a let down. A try in every Slam test to date but even if he scores against England, and I think he will, it won’t be the same as Ella’s record will it?

The Slam would have given the ARU a financial lift in 2017. Alas that promotional tool is gone. Instead of last year’s Bring Back Bill, Mr Pulver must be pleading for a win Saturday ‘For Bill”. Aussie sports fans love winners.

In all honestly, have they really earned the right to be compared to the great 1984 side? Beating England and returning home 4-1 would be a terrific result I think. TK is in good form and seems to be in the right time and place these days. I’d love him to complete his own personal slam of a try in each test.